How to Purchase Websites for Sale

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This guide show you how to use two popular website marketplaces. While Flippa is the largest small to mid price range website marketplace on the internet, DigitalPoint is kind of a wild wild west of online marketplaces: you’ll find a very wide range of websites for sale, from total junk to hidden gems.

Flippa

If you’re selling or buying a website that’s worth between $100 and $50,000, chances are Flippa is a good place to do it. If you’re looking above the $50,000 price range, you should probably talk to a business broker who specializes in online websites. For most flippers however, there is plenty of fish in the sea on Flippa.

Let’s take a look at Flippa from both the buyer’s side and the seller’s side.

Buying on Flippa

The first step to buying a website on Flippa is finding your ideal auction. There are a number of pre-sorted ways you can browse Flippa auctions.

1-Basic-Sort

You can also click on “Advanced” to sort your search results by a number of more sophisticated parameters.

2-Advanced-Search

Each listing in the search results will have a number of important things displayed.

 3-Listing-Example

These are some of the most important things you can see at a glance in a search result:

  • The date the site was established.
  • The amount of visits per month.
  • The site’s PageRank.
  • The revenue the site generates.
  • The seller’s positive rating percentage.
  • How much money the seller has transacted on Flippa.
  • The time left in the auction.
  • The number of bids.
  • The number of comments
  • The price and BIN price.

Browse through the various listings and open up the ones that meet the criteria you’re looking for.

When you open up a site profile, you’ll be presented with the basic stats along the top.

 4-Site-Stats

You’ll also be able to see claimed traffic and claimed revenue stats:5-Site-Stats-2.

The most important thing to pay attention to is the auction’s attachments. Here is where you’ll find proof of traffic, revenue and other details.

As a rule of thumb, it’s much, much safer to only buy from sites that have verified Google Analytics data.

6-Attachments

Make sure that for whatever auction you’re considering, you read thoroughly read through the entire description, all the comments and browse through the site to see what you’re actually getting.

Selling on Flippa

Flippa is one of the best ways to sell a small to mid sized website. You have literally a horde of qualified buyers, all vying to give you the best price for your website. Instead of having to decide yourself how much you think your website will sell for, you can simply let the marketplace and the auction system decide how much your website is truly worth.

You start the selling process by going to https://flippa.com/sell and typing in your site URL.

 7-Start-to-Sell

Flippa will present you with a list of required steps and recommended steps for selling your website. Simply click on each of these steps to setup your site auction. For example, if you click “Site Age,” the age box will popup. Fill out the date your site was created and the information will be added to your auction. Rinse and repeat for every step.

Adding verified Google Analytics data is an optional step, but is highly critical to a successful sale. Start by clicking on the “Add Verified Google Analytics Stats”

Get the code provided by Flippa.

11-Get-Code

Then follow the on-screen instructions to have Google email a copy of the analytics to Flippa. Once you’ve filled out all the required information and launched your auction, all you need to do is sit back and wait. If you get questions from your potential buyers, make sure to answer them in a timely and efficient manner.

That’s how to use Flippa to buy and sell websites. If you’re looking for a massive marketplace to both buy and sell websites, there’s no better place than Flippa.

 

DigitalPoint

DigitalPoint is one of the largest online marketplaces for buying and selling websites online. The trick to making money on DigitalPoint is to be able to find the bargain deals, as well as get top dollar for your own websites.

Here’s how to use DigitalPoint.

Buying on DigitalPoint

Start by editing Filters options.

1-Click-WTS

To learn more about any specific site, just click the thread title.

Once you’re in a specific listing, you’ll be presented with the site’s description. Sometimes you’ll have a lot of information, including proof of traffic and earnings data, while at other times listings will have scarcely any information at all.

3-Description

To make a bid for the site, type the amount you’re willing to pay in the Bid Amount. You can also setup an auto-bid at the same time. If you’d rather just snatch up the website then and there, you can use the “Buy it Now” feature right under the “Sale Data” segment. Those are the basic mechanics of buying a site on DigitalPoint. The challenge in DigitalPoint is that you have to go through many, many listings to find a good deal. That said, there are definitely good deals to be found at bargain prices.

Selling on DigitalPoint

To sell on DigitalPoint, click the “Post New Thread” button. Select “WTS” for the prefix and choose an attention catching title.

 7-Prefix-Title

Select when you want the sale to end. You can also choose whether you want buyers to pay instantly after the sale.

8-Sale-End

Setup the pricing for your auction. Set your starting bid, reserve price, bid increments and BIN price. Put in a few additional details about your site, such as the unique visitors, page views, revenue and whether or not the content is unique.

 10-Site-Details

Answer a few basic technical questions, such as where your domain is registered, your Alexa ranking and the number of backlinks you have. Finally and most importantly give a detailed description of your website. Make a strong case for why your site is a good business. Attach as much proof of traffic and revenues as you possibly can.
That’s how to use DigitalPoint to buy and sell websites. DigitalPoint is not as streamlined as Flippa, but there are definitely diamonds to be found in the rough.